Starship Sunday III

Starship Sunday is a showcase feature of cannon spacecraft seen in Star Trek television episodes and movies.

This week; USS Grissom, NCC-638, Oberth Class. Seen on Star Trek III The Search for Spock, released 1 June 1984.

In 2285, Grissom was ordered to conduct a scientific survey on the newly formed Genesis Planet, created from the Mutara Nebula. After Khan Noonien Singh detonated the Genesis Torpedo in an failed attempt to kill James T. Kirk, the nebula materials were reconstituted into the Genesis Planet, causing a galactic controversy about the means and power used to create it.

While in orbit above the Genesis Planet, a Klingon Bird of Prey attempted to disable Grissom and obtain all data and materials concerning the Genesis device and process. However, the Federation science vessel was destroyed the with a single torpedo hit.

Battles amongst the stars

As it stands in Star Trek Timelines, I still have the starter ship, an un-nameable Constellation Class.

Although I can't control the ship in battle, meaning the battle appears to be a pre-programmed animation of spacial combat, I do get to tap on the crew I have assigned to the ship, once their powerups are active.

Thus far, I have beaten a Borg Cube, albeit damaged, but still operational enough to give me a hard time.

 
Another battle had me facing off against a ship from a very famous class....

....and once again, I prevailed. From my current perspective in Timelines, it's not so much the ship, for now, it's the crew that is chosen for it that has the most influence on the outcome of the battle.

To test this theory, I will switch out Picard and Sulu and post my results, sometime in the near future.

Prepare for launch

With little announcement that I could find, Star Trek Timelines launched from the Google Playstore today https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.disruptorbeam.StarTrekTimelines&hl=en so of course, I downloaded, installed and dove right into things.

Through the narration of events by John de Lancie, reprising his memorable role as the omnipotent Q, I have a verbal guide to make choices that may affect the outcome of the next adventure and the whole game. To start things off, there is a temporal disturbance that is investigated by both Starfleet and the Romulans. From a rift, a bunch of old starships pop out and Kirk becomes a part of my crew, temporarily. 

There seems to be some co-existence issues going on, as explained above. And, through the powers of Q....

....time has no meaning and crews from across the Star Trek universe, can and probably will be used to unravel the great mystery driving this storyline, as first seen during the Ceti Alpha VI incident.

In less than ten minutes, I reached Level 3, unlocking the first major rewards, putting my crew together....

....which also include real world offers, but this is to be expected, a game needs to generate income for development and maintenance.

From my perspective, it's far too early for me to tell if this of any real value or not. No doubt, other players have purchased this and I will be checking on the forums for pots of bragging or regrets https://www.disruptorbeam.com/forums/stt

The gameplay feels like a finger sweep the right person into a situation and/or tap the available choices of responses/questions, to move things forward. Not too hard, by any means, but I have only just gotten started here and things could evolve.

Rest assured, as I progress, I will post. 

Off the shelf and into my hands

One of the first items I have come across, concerning the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek. Now, I am not about to go on a spending spree picking up....things, just because it will say 50th on it. However, I will purchase a few, select items as the year progresses.

Still, $11.99 for a magazine? When did the prices go up?

A very, very old and rekindled feud

It all started here, back in 1967. The scene; Vasquez Rocks, California.

Start off with Captain James T. Kirk....

....add a Gorn, seen for the first time by human eyes and get this....

Fast forward 46 years, to 2013 and say the setting is this suburban house, somewhere in Los Angeles....

....yeah, you might have guessed what might happen next....

Starship Sunday II

Starship Sunday is a showcase feature of cannon spacecraft seen in Star Trek television episodes and movies.

This week; IKS Amar, Klingon K't'inga Class. Seen on Star Trek The Motion Picture, released 7 December 1979.

The Klingon captain of the battlecruiser IKS Amar whose three-ship patrol is destroyed by V'ger along the onetime Federation Neutral Zone of the pre-alliance era in 2372. Prudent and capable, he is just as shocked as any of his Federation colleagues later at the size and destructiveness of the vast entity. - See more at: http://www.startrek.com/database_article/captain-klingon-amar#sthash.LK8gQMoK.dpuf

In 2371, the Amar was the lead vessel of a three-ship patrol that intercepted V'Ger, passing through Klingon space on it's way to Earth. Amar fired three photon torpedoes at the V'Ger cloud, then ordered evasive maneuvers when it was quickly discovered their weapons had no effect on the intruder.

The Klingon captain of the battlecruiser IKS Amar whose three-ship patrol is destroyed by V'ger along the onetime Federation Neutral Zone of the pre-alliance era in 2372. Prudent and capable, he is just as shocked as any of his Federation colleagues later at the size and destructiveness of the vast entity. - See more at: http://www.startrek.com/database_article/captain-klingon-amar#sthash.LK8gQMoK.dpuf

The Klingon captain of the battlecruiser IKS Amar whose three-ship patrol is destroyed by V'ger along the onetime Federation Neutral Zone of the pre-alliance era in 2372. Prudent and capable, he is just as shocked as any of his Federation colleagues later at the size and destructiveness of the vast entity. - See more at: http://www.startrek.com/database_article/captain-klingon-amar#sthash.LK8gQMoK.dpuf

The Klingon captain of the battlecruiser IKS Amar whose three-ship patrol is destroyed by V'ger along the onetime Federation Neutral Zone of the pre-alliance era in 2372. Prudent and capable, he is just as shocked as any of his Federation colleagues later at the size and destructiveness of the vast entity. - See more at: http://www.startrek.com/database_article/captain-klingon-amar#sthash.LK8gQMoK.dpuf

One by one, the fleeing ships were disintegrated by high energy plasma bolts fired from V'Ger, converting them into pure information and stored aboard the cloud. Before being destroyed, the last ship, Amar, sent out a transmission to the Klingon High Command, informing them of the situation. A nearby Federation monitoring station, Epsilon IX, intercepted the broadcast, re-transmitted it to Starfleet Command and observed the final attack on Amar, being digitized by V'Ger.

A novel idea comes and goes

Yeah, that was a very long time ago. As you might be able to see in my one hand, I do have two Star Trek novels, gifts from a forgotten Christmas.

Star Trek IV, is pretty much what you might have guessed it to be, a novel adaptation of the movie. Battlestations! was the second part to a two part series. The first book, Dreadnought, I didn't have nor picked up a copy over the years. Needless to say, I tried to get into the book as a stand alone story, but the only thing I remember is some wacky ship called the SS Banana Republic.

From the school library, I was borrowing these, most times returning them way over due. Although James Blish wrote adaptations of episodes from the Animated Series, I was replacing those cartoon characters with their real life counterparts with my imagination.

Here is where the odd book tried to take me off my chosen path. My first thought was this was a collection of fictional short stories based in the Star Trek universe. The reality, opinion pieces and speculative articles that were beyond my level of comprehension at the time.

Just a few short years after the top, first, opening picture was taken, The Next Generation come out and became the phenomenon that almost everyone was interested in, myself included. Once again, I dove into the novels, receiving them mostly as Christmas and Birthday gifts. Vendetta was one of two I remember to this day. A long and in depth story surrounding the use of the Doomsday Weapons from the Original Series against the Borg. Metamorphosis was a lengthy tale of the android Data becoming human and everything that he has to cope with, given his new condition.

Then, just like the comics of the same time period, the novels faded away from my interests. I can't even say, for certain, what the title of the last one I read was, or even what it was about. However, Star Trek in print wasn't totally out of my life, just taking on a slight twist in personality....